


Rowboats and Landlines

by thewightknight



Series: Kylux prompts and ficlets [19]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cabin by the lake, M/M, Meet-Cute, Summer Vacation, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 04:16:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9531119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: This summer it looked like someone might be staying in that dilapidated old cabin across the lake





	

**Author's Note:**

> From [this tumblr post](https://thewightknight.tumblr.com/post/156631060063/ballvvasher-i-saw-this-picture-of-adam-driver-and):
> 
>  
> 
> _i saw this picture of adam driver and a million deep kylux AUs flashed before my eyes but then i somehow settled on ‘hux is lounging in his backyard and some hot, muscular suspender-clad man pulls his rowboat up to hux’s dock and asks to use a phone’ au. its like the pizza man porn fantasy but more aesthetic._

The weeks Hux got to himself at the family cabin every summer were the best weeks of Hux’s year. He’d arrive just before the 4th of July, avoiding all the crazy American shenanigans, and stay through the first week of August. Usually he brought a suitcase of books that he’d picked up at secondhand stores throughout the year, digging them out from where he’d hidden them in the box under his bed, science fiction and YA, things his father would scorn him for reading if he’d seen them. He always dropped them off at a library on his way home.

Today he was revisiting an old friend, one of the few that he’d kept over the years. His copy of Dune was held together with packing tape, the corners rounded and many of the pages dog-eared. The story still swept him away even though he knew some parts by heart, so it took a while before the noise registered. It wasn’t until a particularly loud clunk, accompanied by a blistering series of swear words, rang out across the lake that he realized someone had a boat out there. 

There were four other cabins in this quiet corner of nowhere and he’d seen people at three of them over the years, usually never for more than a week at a time. The Mickels owned the closest one. Their children were grown and scattered and they’d been talking about selling their place for the last few years but hadn’t quite brought themselves to do so. He didn’t know who the other three belonged to. Two of them got rented out occasionally, but the lake was so secluded, so far from everything, that it wasn’t a popular destination. The last one had been vacant for Hux’s entire life, at least during the summer, dilapated and worn. 

Hux could see a car parked out in front of this cabin now, a battered old Volvo, and the boathouse door was open. There’d been a boat in there? And it was seaworthy? Well, not all that watertight, it seemed, because as he watched the man used a pail to bail it out before taking up the oars again. He was headed in Hux’s direction. Dark hair clung to his forehead from his exertions and Hux couldn’t help but appreciate the flexing of the muscles in his arms and back as he rowed. Finally he made it to the other side, bumping up against the dock not too far from where Hux sat.

“Hey there!” Instead of tying up, the guy jumped out, dragging the boat up onto the shore. Probably a good idea, with how it was leaking. “I’m staying at the cabin across the lake, but the key isn’t where it's supposed to be. I can’t get any service on my phone. Do you have one I could borrow?”

Rich golden eyes held his, and a grin tugged at one corner of his mouth. Realizing he was staring, Hux shook his head. 

“Of course, yes. Come on up.” Folding the corner of his page over, he set the book down.

“Dune! Sweet! That’s one of my favorites.”

“Mine too.”

“There’s a path, you know, that goes around the lake,” Hux offered as they climbed the hill up to his cabin..

“There is? Shit.”

“I’ll show it to you after you make your call.”

“That’d be great. I don’t know if that boat will make it back across.”

“So how long will you be staying?” he asked as he pointed out the phone. “If you don’t have a landline over there you’ll be cut off the entire time.

“A few weeks. Maybe a month. S’okay, wasn’t really planning on making many calls.”

While his new neighbor punched in the numbers, Hux leaned back against the doorframe, taking in every glorious inch of the man. He wasn’t unaware of Hux’s scrutiny, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“Hey, Uncle Lando. Yeah, I got here okay but there isn’t any coffee can on the porch … No, not in the boathouse either. … The rowboat leaks too. … Okay, I’ll check there. If it’s not, though, I’m breaking a window. There’s some wood I can use in the boathouse to cover it up. … No, the guy across the lake has a phone. … Okay. Thanks.”

As he talked he caught Hux still checking him out and winked. 

“About that path?”

They chatted on the way, simple things, but it wasn’t the words that mattered. It was the sly grins, the sidelong glances, and the occasional rich burst of laughter that stayed with him. Halfway around the lake, Hux made a decision. This summer he’d do something besides read.

**Author's Note:**

> [I wrote a sequel!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11884830)


End file.
